Gerry Dick, President and Managing Editor, Grow Indiana Media Ventures, LLC, Creator and Host, Inside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick.

The host and creator of Inside INdiana Business television, Gerry Dick also serves as president and managing editor of Grow INdiana Media Ventures, LLC, a diverse media company focused on producing and distributing Indiana business news and information through multiple media channels. Gerry and technology entrepreneur Scott Jones are owners of the company.

Grow Indiana properties include Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, which can be seen on 13 Indiana network affiliated and public broadcasting stations, InsideIndianaBusiness.com, Inside INdiana Business Radio, The INside Edge and INside Edge Morning Briefing daily e-newsletters, and several interactive, information on-demand products. The company also is parent to Inside Arizona Business, a Tucson-based business news and information organization.

Location and Parking:  The Brickyard Crossing Inn is located on the Southeast corner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway property, outside of the track.  The Inn is on the north side of 16^th street, just west of the railroad tracks overpass and just east of the main entrance to the motor speedway.  Parking – FREE parking is located in front of the Inn.  Our meeting rooms are located on the LOWER level of the Inn.  You enter the main entrance, proceed to the stairs directly ahead of you, and turn left once you reach the lower level.

Date:           Tuesday, December 8^th, 2009

Time:         11:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.

Place:          Brickyard Crossing Inn

                        4400 West 16th

                        Indianapolis, Indiana, 46222

RSVP:         Seating is limited to 100 attendees

Current members are allowed two free attendees for the luncheon, and guests or non-members are $25 per person for the luncheon.

All RSVPs must be received no later than Thursday, December 3^rd

Please RSVP to Shelly Hogan, 217-285-4905, or shelly.hogan@oneamerica.com

Open any calculus book and you will find a discussion about how differentiability implies continuity, but continuity does not imply differentiability. The absolute value function is the standard example of a continuous function that is not differentiable (at ).

The inquisitive student may ask: how bad can continuous, nondifferentiable functions get? Can we make a function nondifferentiable at an infinitely many points? At a dense collection of points? At every point?

This is the topic in the Real Analysis class I’m teaching right now. Surprisingly, there are functions that are continuous everywhere, but differentiable nowhere! More surprisingly, it is possible to give an explicit formula for such a function.

Weierstrass was the first to publish an example of such a function (1872). It appears that Bolzano had an example as early as 1830, but it wasn’t published until much later.

The example I gave in class is called the Blancmange function (and the graph is called the Takagi fractal curve).

Let be the sawtooth function equal to  on  and repeated periodically elsewhere.

Let .

Then , the graph of which is shown below, is a continuous and nowhere differentiable. I created a Geogebra applet to help the students visualize the construction of this function.

Although this seems like a crazy example, it turns out that most continuous functions are nowhere differentiable (there is a technical meaning for “most”). The nice functions that we see every day in our calculus classes are rare.

Emergency training is not “one size fits all.”

The proper emergency response to a fire might be quite different than to a hurricane, a release of toxic chemicals, or a terrorist attack. Not knowing the difference could make a bad situation a lot worse—and you don’t want to wait until a disaster happens to find out that your emergency training is … well, a disaster. So the first step in an effective training program is to identify what types of emergencies might actually occur and determine the appropriate response for each. This may mean that you need to have more than one type of training for different possible emergencies.

OSHA’s guidelines are a good start.

Although OSHA’s standards related to emergency response provide little specific direction on what training must include, other OSHA publications have specific guidelines for emergency response training. These guidelines include the following general training points:

• Recognizing potential hazards and threats that might create an emergency
• Contents of the company’s Emergency Action Plan (EAP)
• Location and use of common emergency response equipment, such as alarms
• Individual roles and responsibilities
• Warning, alarm, and communication procedures and systems
• Evacuation and shelter procedures
• Reporting and accountability procedures (that is, making sure everyone is accounted for in an emergency)
• Equipment shutdown procedures

Because fast response is critical in an emergency, practical exercises and drills should be considered essential to effective emergency training. And remember that employees with specific emergency response duties must receive additional, specialized training.

Don’t forget to update emergency training.

OSHA also provides guidelines on when to provide emergency training. Clearly, it’s not enough simply to train once and forget about it. OSHA encourages emergency training:

• Immediately after developing an EAP
• After revisions to the EAP
• For all new employees
• For employees with new responsibilities or assignments
• When new equipment, materials, or processes are introduced
• When exercises and drills show unsatisfactory performance
• In any event, at least annually

Why It Matters…

In FY 2004, OSHA gave out more than 300 citations for violations of its Emergency Action Plan rules.
Life-threatening emergencies can happen in any workplace, so it simply makes sense to make sure employees know how to respond properly and safely.

A comprehensive emergency response program can also help reduce legal, insurance, and recovery costs. EAPs are also a critical component of every Business Continuity Plan. Central Florida Safety Academy specializes in Workplace Emergency Preparedness and Response programs. Whether your business needs a review of an existing plan or program, or need to create one, we can help!

Who needs to have an Emergency Action Plan?

There are two different, but equally correct, answers to this question. The first answer is that OSHA requires an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) only for employers who are covered by certain standards, such as “Fixed Extinguishing Systems” and “Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals” (other standards also require EAPs). The second answer is that every company really should have an EAP. Not only does OSHA highly recommend it, but it simply makes sense to have a plan for a safe, orderly response to emergencies such as fires, weather events, releases of hazardous substances, etc. And note that even relatively minor incidents, such as small fires or spills, constitute an “emergency” if they trigger an alarm and require employees to stop what they’re doing and evacuate their work areas.

What should an EAP contain?

OSHA includes helpful guidelines for EAPs as an appendix to its standard on Exit Routes, EAPs, and Fire Prevention Plans (29 CFR 1910, Subpart E). In brief, the EAP should address any emergencies that might reasonably be expected to happen in your workplace and include:

• Procedures for reporting the emergency
• Evacuation procedures–ideally, the EAP should include floor plans showing exit routes and assembly points
• How to account for all employees who have evacuated
• Responsibilities of any employees who are designated to stay behind and ensure safe shutdown of operations
• Responsibilities of any employees who may be designated to perform rescue or medical duties

What should emergency response training include?

Every employee needs to know what he or she is expected to do when an emergency alarm sounds–and further, to do it quickly. For most employees, the proper response is simply to evacuate the work area in a rapid but orderly manner, using proper exit routes, and to assemble in a designated “safe area.” However, some employees–OSHA calls them “evacuation wardens”–should be given the responsibility for making sure that other employees leave the area properly and safely. OSHA recommends one warden for every 20 employees, and suggests that they receive specialized training in:

• Knowing the complete layout of the building or work area, including the various exit routes
• Giving guidance and instruction to employees during evacuation
• Knowing how to assist employees, such as those with disabilities, who may need assistance
• Checking all rooms and enclosed spaces to make sure that no one is left behind

Why It Matters…

• OSHA estimates there are approximately 200 workplace deaths and 5,000 workplace injuries each year due to fire, one of the most common types of emergencies.
• In FY 2004, OSHA issued more than 300 citations for violations of its rule on Emergency Action Plans.

Safety experts all agree that knowing how to act quickly and properly in an emergency is the key to saving lives and preventing injuries. Central Florida Safety Academy specializes in Workplace Emergency Preparedness and Response programs. Whether your business needs a review of an existing plan or program, or need to create one for OSHA compliance, we can help!

ज़िन्दगी यूं थम सी जाती है  जब प्रयास नहीं होता निरंतर …

कुछ बंद से रास्तो में उलझी  हुई सी , जब हार होती है निरंतर

हर सिलसला चाहे हो दिल का या सांसो का …नहीं बढ़ता निरंतर

पर फिर भी उस विराम की उत्सुकता होती है हर वाक्य के आरम्भ मे

क्योंकि वो पूर्ण करता है…

या फिर वो अधूरापन अच्छा है जो अनदेखा है..

जिसकी तलाश मे ज़िन्दगी जीते है निरंतर

विराम का एक स्वतंत्र बिंदु या वो तीन बिंदु अपूर्ण पर आशावान…

हर विराम के बाद फिर नया कुछ…

या फिर बिना विराम के अपार संभावनाए  समटे वो तीन बिंदु…

गतिवान अटूट निरंतरता…झरने सी पवित्र गुंजन करती हुई टूट क़र फिर जुडती हुई वेगवान निरंतरता

उद्गम स्थल से अनिश्चित सी यात्रा परन्तु उत्साह से भरी झरने के निरंतरता…

शायद अनदेखी उत्सुकता समेते तीन बिंदु अच्छे है पूर्ण विराम चिन्ह के उस एक बिंदु से …

I just had a fun discussion with Ron Marz (writer of Witchblade) over at Twitter. I’m going to share the conversation with you, unedited, before I provide some closing thoughts.

For those unfamiliar with the conventions of Twitter, the @ symbol, in front of a name, means you’re directing that comment at that person. The letters RT stand for ReTweet and mean that you’re reposting that person’s comment.

Ron’s comments are presented in BOLD, mine in Italics.

RT @ErikJLarsen Catering to continuity buffs hurts all. [True! Telling stories that only longtime readers understand is slow road to doom.]

@ronmarz I’m just not sure I buy that. If readers can’t follow the story, the problem isn’t the use of continuity, it’s just bad writing.

@kpatrickglover Relying too heavily upon continuity leads to bad writing, or at least writing that the wide audience can’t understand.

@kpatrickglover If you only want to appeal to the readers you already have, that’s the way to go. But it does not grow the readership.

@ronmarz I didn’t say to rely strictly on continuity, but if the story you want to tell relies on past events, you should be able to refer..

@ronmarz ..to those events in a way that tells the reader what they need to know without alienating them.

@kpatrickglover Yes, writers should be able to do that. Too often, they don’t. Some comics I get in my comp box are incomprehensible to me.

@kpatrickglover I think you can refer to past events in a way that is welcoming to new readers. But wallowing in the past is a big barrier.

@ronmarz Then we agree. It’s just when I read books like that I don’t blame the use of the continuity, I blame the guy who wrote it that way

@kpatrickglover I feel like you can refer to continuity, but you should never make your story dependent upon continiuty.

@kpatrickglover Too often, that’s the case now — whole stories are built upon something that happened 20 years ago.

@kpatrickglover That stuff is embraced by the hardcore audience, but does nothing to attract the next generation of readers.

@ronmarz Okay, let’s say you want to write a story about Sherlock Holmes that takes place during the three years he was thought dead after..

@ronmarz his fall from Reichenbach Falls. That story would be dependent on the fact that Holmes is thought dead and in hiding from…

@ronmarz Moriarty’s men and that he can’t turn to Watson for help. Now, you can set all manner of good stories in that frame, but they’ll

@ronmarz all be dependent on making sure the reader knows Holmes’ situation.

@kpatrickglover Right, that’s an explanation of a few lines. The problem with so much comic continuity is that it’s overly complex…

@kpatrickglover …and not easily explained. There’s too much pre-knowledge expected from the audience.

@ronmarz But, X-men aside, does it have to be? I can’t think of any story in comics that relies on old material, that you couldn’t explain..

@ronmarz ….in a few lines. I just think certain writers choose to make it overly dense or complicated and that’s where the mistake is.

@kpatrickglover I can think of plenty of recent examples where the focal point of a story is continuity-driven. Unfortunately…

@kpatrickglover …I make it a practice to refrain from being crtitical of specific stories or creators. It’s not professional.

@kpatrickglover Sorry I can’t be more specific. Short version: stories need to be more accessible…

@kpatrickglover …both in concept and in execution.

@ronmarz I was going to say I didn’t want to get into specific stories because I didn’t want to point fingers at anybody, so yeah. We agree.

I think Ron and I are basically in agreement on most of this. Neither of us think that comics should be so dense with continuity that they are impenetrable to the new reader. That can only end badly.

We disagree on specifics, I think, but it’s hard to get there in a public conversation without talking about specific creators, and neither of us wants to go there.

I will say this, there’s a difference between basing a story off of an event that happened twenty years ago and wallowing in the minutia of that event. Tell the reader what they need to know to join in the fun and don’t rely on an overabundance of tiny details.

Continuity should be something you add to the mix, an extra ingredient that makes the meal just a bit sweeter. Lagniappe, as they say down in New Orleans. It should never be the main course.

It was rather recent, and I hoped I’d get ‘em all back. Losing balloons was one of those kid things we hated doing. Popped balloons was murder. Floater-away balloons were heartaches on-the-fly. Waiter, there’s a fly in my heart-soup.

Oh, forget it.

From out of the old northwest an old band played this to the delight of many ears (approximately two per head):

My next must-do (might not get done) would be to thank all the folks who expressed sympathy and condolences during my recent bereavement crisis. You are truly a blessing to me, so THANK YOU KIND FRIENDS for those thoughtful words of yours.

I’ve been trying to keep positive and keep looking forward, so tonight I am going to focus on what brings me peace. These are some of my examples:

I love to journal. It allows me the place to confide issues that are on my heart. Journaling gives me a sense of continuity in my own sense of identity. Whenever I need to remind myself of who I am or what got me through something, I can look back into my journals or blogs and see what I did to get through tough times and moments that just took my breath away. Journaling is quite therapeutic for me.

Music soothes my soul. It can bring me peace to internalize the message of love God has for me when I think He has forsaken me. The lyrics speak to my soul and the music, itself, allows me to flow freely into a realm of peace, quiet and oneness.

Images like this one above give me a desire I seek to fulfill. I see a young woman who is living carefree, letting the sun shine down on her, and loving life. Images like this one gives me hope for the future and provides me a visual to keep in mind.

Oh the beauty of peonies in full bloom! They are so stunningly beautiful. Flowers are beautiful to the eyes, but the sight of them aren’t all that brings me peace it is the tenderness of each petal a flower has. The petals are so fragile. I love to have fresh cut flowers in my home. I hope to always at least.

]]> http://tonyridley.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/qui-bono-who-benefits-is-your-corporate-resilience-more-about-personalities-than-real-threats/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:23:58 +0000 tonyridley http://tonyridley.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/qui-bono-who-benefits-is-your-corporate-resilience-more-about-personalities-than-real-threats/

The vast majority of companies, regardless of what they themselves believe, are significantly influenced in their resilience planning by the personalities that represent the process. Whether it is a sole champion or a department that is charged with the enterprise resilience strategy and execution of planning, it is most likely that their personal passions, skills, experience or even comprehension will dominate the overall corporate preparedness and response to actual threats. This phenomena is further compounded by the degree of humility or hubris of these executors and their ability to assimilate, even in the wake of such shortfalls, to rapidly and effectively respond to such oversights. Regrettably, it is often all too late to change at the 11th hour and many of the failing are dismissed/justified by environment, market forces, mother nature or just bad luck. Not the root cause. Sizeable amounts of money is lost, unrealized or expended on unnecessary opportune cost daily or annually as a result.

The scope and demands of modern and dynamic corporates, especially multinational or geographically dispersed entities, is by no means an easy task. A vast amount of knowledge and planning may be required and then resources/strategies applied to areas that warrant countermeasures/treatment solutions that then must be simplified or distilled for consumption and action by numerous stakeholders or line managers. Limited scope, ego, protectionism, arrogance, incompetence, budget constraints and many other issues act in unison to prevent a less than optimum result for all involved. The most resilient companies and the most efficient departments acknowledge all these issues and build such human failings and influences into the methodology to achieve superior results. Paradoxically, these companies are often the most competitive companies also thanks to this vision and forethought.

If this were not challenging enough, the character, charisma, communications skills or business acumen of the lead/executive representative of such functions could signal the final success or failure of all the accumulated work conducted that comes to then convincing the CEO/COO/CFO that a particular threat is credible or a specific investment is necessitated on the strength of the threat and the potential impact if left unchecked. Should they be found wanting, the threat remains unchecked. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!

Financial management has moved past this similar challenge (for the most part) by means of audits, internal checks, disclosure, review or external validation of findings. Risk management, of a non-financial nature, has a long way to go before such approaches become mainstream.

Resilience is based on a comprehensive understanding of all the assets/investments/capital at risk. Qualifying and quantifying the threats and the residual risk present; once current and proposed mitigation/treatment/corrective measures are implemented. A subsequent project plan based on budgets, tolerances, practicalities, strategies and threats is then initiated. None of this is possible or conducted until executive or leadership elements are consulted, convinced and contribute to the outcome, not retrospectively. The sheer diversity and complications of modern and fast paced business operations mandates that this process be a team sport and a collaborative approach.

If you have never met your risk manager, or contributed to the demand or have no budget for such measures, you are part of the problem and less a part of the solution and remain symptomatic of this chronic disease.

Like all addictions or dependency behavior, the first step in breaking the cycle begins with asking yourself some fairly honest and confronting questions. If you can’t affect change then you need help, not time, but actionable collaboration. If not, are you merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing, only to be discovered when most needed?

Two weekends ago, I took part in the 48 hour film project. It was a hellish and great experience simultaneously.. it’s something that’s really valuable to go through, I think. I worked with an absolutely great crew, everyone was so devoted and ready to sacrifice their time, sleep, and mental health for the sake of our final product. Our film was directed by Stevie Day, produced by Emma Haarburger, DoPed by me, sound mixed by Shu Shu Zheng, 1st ADed by Dawn Lo, Assistant produced by Stacey Kwijas, Boomed by Laura James, Technically assisted by Lachlan Stewart, Continuityed by Malcolm Yeo.. the list goes on, I don’t have access to the credits list right now, but everyone was awesome.

Making a film in 48 hours is radically different to making one over the course of a semester. You cannot plan the film in advance.. not in a great degree of detail, anyway. You’ve got to be flexible and inventive on the spot, prepared for anything. There was no shotlist for this shoot, let alone a floorplan, and only a loose schedule of when we needed to shift locations. Hence it was daunting at first. I walked into our first location, a massive church that I’d never seen before.. and I have no idea where we should start. Do we light the entire church? Do we have enough power to light the whole church? Do we just set up for one specific frame and reset everything later? The clock is constantly ticking and it took me a little while to decide on what we needed to set up, equipment-wise.
We blasted a 2K fresnel from the entrance of the church, throwing a strong backlight on Andy (the father) and casting stark shadows over the walls (adjusting the intensity as needed with strong ND gels). We used the kino gelled with 1/2 CTO to act as a fill. On Johnny (our voodoo pimp), I placed a dedo behind him on each side, and crossed the beams in an ‘X’ shape for strong contrast and facial modelling. The ‘X’ system was a bit of a pain however, as whenever Johnny needed to move forwards, we needed to cheat the dedos forward as well and try to recreate the same angles and shadows on Johnny’s face.
Throughout the film, we ran the DSR450 white balanced at 5600K despite using millions of tungsten light sources.. Stevie and I liked the warmth it provided.. (very little was done to our footage in post-production. We blackened the blacks and slightly boosted the highlights.. colour-wise, 99% of our footage is exactly as we shot it, and I’m happy with the way it came out, considering.)

What did we mess up? Continuity between shots was the biggest thing, cinematography-wise I think. Each shot looked fine in itself, but we discovered numerous problems when we got into the edit and tried to combine them all together. One sequence in particular really pissed me off because we’d covered it as a 2-shot and twice more as a CU of each character.. yet in edit we found that our 2-shot was extremely different to our tighter shots. Dani’s hair was completely different in the closeup, and I’d adjusted the lighting angle in Andy’s closeup to get rid of a shadow.. bad move. Our wider 2-shot was thus unusable, the cut was jarring, so we had to use only tight shots. Hence there’s no sense of space between the two characters.. they could be 500m away from each other and we wouldn’t have a clue. It’s quite weird to watch without a master shot of some kind. Even worse, the framing of each closeup didn’t match. Andy’s CU was much tighter than Dani’s Cu, so it seems like Andy has a massive head for no reason. Sucks. It’s something I hadn’t considered before, not properly anyway.
On a more general note, that may have been the problem with our coverage in general. Not enough wides. Now.. I’m not a fan of wides. They can be messy, cluttered, far too colourful, everything’s in focus and there’s no room for a boom operator to get any good sound. But otherwise you’re stuck with ambiguous floating heads.. yes the shallow DOF is awesome, but there’s no sense of place and it looks so contrived and cut together. It didn’t help that the stripclub we were shooting in was covered in mirrors.. every single wall was a mirror, which severely limited our framing possibilities. Shots generally needed to be tight to blur out equipment and crew members you’d otherwise see in the background. Similarly in the church, wides were difficult because we were using dedos and a small kino on Johnny. These are small lights that need to be in close, and going too wide results in seeing them. I guess we could’ve pulled out redheads instead, but I don’t think it would be the same effect. Cheating the lights backwards would result in a softening of shadows, making everything seem flat.. not worth it.

So yes. Continuity, coverage and framing were the main problems on this shoot, but that’s to be expected given the time constraints. Something had to go wrong, obviously. And overall, I’m extremely happy with how the film turned out. Thanks to everyone involved, it was brilliant to work with you all. I’m going to shut up now and stick in some pictures.

for a long time

This is done with typing….

This is a Word insert….

BLOG APPEARANCE TODAY

• I chose this format at random, but it looks nice
• This is a 2 column format (there are up to 3) but this one has more room across for post text
• In this case, posts on the left – archives, links and widgets are on the right
• We can look at other formats if you want
• There are 2 pages – Home (posts) and About (info you guys want to share about the group)
• I’m pretty sure we can change the pic at the top
• We can change the title, subtitle, etc.
• We’ll get to how to change the detailed stuff later on

Point set topology can get quite weird! Here’s a pathological topology with a few interesting connectedness properties.

Definition. Let be a set. The cofinite topology on consists of all subsets of such that the complement of is finite, in addition to the empty set. In other words, the closed sets of are precisely the finite sets in addition to the entire set itself. It’s easy (and a little boring) to check that the is in fact a valid topology.

This topology is only interesting when is infinite. For finite spaces, the cofinite topology is the same as the discrete topology, which defines all subsets to be open (making it rather dull). So from here on out, we’ll assume that is infinite. Why is the cofinite topology interesting? This first fact is what got me curious about the cofinite topology to begin with.

Proposition. If is Hausdorff, then every continuous function is constant.

Proof. Fix any , and suppose there exists a such that . Since is Hausdorff we can produce disjoint neighborhoods and . Continuity of implies that and must both be open and nonempty (since and ), and therefore both are cofinite. In particular, since is infinite, this means that must be infinite as well, since its complement is finite.

Furthermore, and must also be disjoint. This is because if we had a point in their intersection, then we would have that and , which contradicts our choice of and as disjoint neighborhoods. The fact that and are disjoint implies that is contained in the complement of . But is cofinite, so its complement is finite. This leads us to the absurd conclusion that , an infinite set, is contained in the finite complement of . Therefore there can exist no such that . In other words, for all .

This proof relied on the observation that under the cofinite topology, any two open sets of cannot be disjoint. Technically, this means that is hyperconnected; intuitively, we visualize that the points of are very “close together” in some sense because, given any two points, all of their neighborhoods must intersect. But, despite this intuition, we have the following result:

Proposition. If is countable, then it is not path-connected — in other words, given any two , there is no continuous such that and .

Proof. Suppose that such a path exists. Any singleton set is finite and hence closed and the continuity of would force that be closed as well. So the set is a collection of closed sets. is in bijection with , making countable. Furthermore, the sets in must be disjoint — if not, we would have some in the intersection of two different and , forcing and and violating well-definedness of . Finally, must also be a cover of since is defined on all of . This gives us a countable, disjoint covering of by closed sets — which is impossible.

But it gets weirder still. Even though countable spaces aren’t path-connected, which already is in some ways counterintuitive since is hyperconnected, uncountable spaces can be path connected! This is interesting because it’s an example of how cardinality can be related to connectedness.

Proposition. If is uncountable, then any two points can be connected by a bijective path for some .

Proof. This proof relies on the continuum hypothesis, which asserts that every uncountable set has at least the cardinality of the continuum. This assumption allows us to produce an injective function such that and . Restricting the codomain to just the image gives a bijection . has to be continuous because the preimage of any finite subset of (which are closed) under a bijection must also be finite, and finite subsets of are also closed under the usual euclidean topology.

Note that above, we proved more than was necessary for path-connectedness: we were able to get our path to be bijective. But it would be impossible for the path to be a homeomorphism! This is because if were a homeomorphism, its inverse image would have to be continuous as well. But inherits the cofinite topology from , and is Hausdorff under its usual topology. So by my first proposition, continuity of would make a constant function. And a constant function cannot surject onto !

This distinction between continuous bijections and homeomorphisms is important. In fact, there are (at least) two different definitions of arc-connectedness. One definition just requires there to exist a continuous, bijective path, whereas the other (seemingly more common) definition more strongly requires a homeomorphic path. So an uncountable set with the cofinite topology would be arc-connected in the first sense, but not in the other! Weirdness!

Pillock has finally finished his look at Star Wars and his own personal ‘canon’. Essential reading for anyone who liked my Hyperpost series.

Dave Sim has switched to doing his comics POD – apparently Cerebus Archive was dropped by Diamond. Very sad – it’ll only mean even lower sales for these titles.

Jazz Hands, Serious Business has a post on what being a Liberal Democrat means.

Debi has a quite wonderful post on the medical and social models of disability, and how this relates to the discourse surrounding Gordon Brown’s handwriting.

And Millennium continues his reviews of The Prisoner.

I think we have established here just how passionate I am about bringing down the Kermitocracy. Seriously, given the choice between bringing down the Kermitocracy, and, say, winning a trillion dollars, I would feel much wealthier bringing an end to the Porcine-Anuran Campaign.

That said, I am obviously an advocate for anything that will help end the reign of terror that Kermit is perpetrating against us humans on a daily basis. Any and all actions taken against the Kermitocracy are worthy of our utmost respect, even our reverence.

But some attempts at steeling ourselves against Kermit just miss the mark.

Case in point: Forterra Systems, Inc. They have apparently invented a way for workers home sick with the Miss Piggy Flu to continue to be productive through the use of avatar conferencing software, not unlike Second Life (except without the fun).

According to their press release:

The solution, based on 3D Internet technology, allows users to work from remote locations and be as productive as they would be in live settings without the risk of spreading or being exposed to the potentially fatal virus.

Using existing compute and networking technologies found in most businesses, academic or government organizations, the solution allows users to use a PC to log into a secure virtual environment where they are represented as a fully-animated avatar.

Through this avatar-based computer interface, users are able to perform a broad range of communication and collaboration tasks…They can share and present a variety of media and documents to other participants with just a few clicks of a mouse. The avatars breathe, move naturally, and perform a broad range of hand and body gestures — just as people do in the real world — which creates a more natural and compelling environment for the participants. The results of all interactions are visible and audible to all participants logged into the environment.

Avatars can easily be customized to look exactly like the real users instantly creating recognition and trusted bonds between users in the virtual setting. Users are able to talk to each other naturally through the use of integrated VOIP technology using a headset.

Users can work from home or any other location and remain connected to the rest of the organization or external parties as if they were physically co-located, enabling them to stay productive.

The ability to bring your employees and your entire business ecosystem together in a familiar setting where they can collaborate as they would in the real world is critical to support continuity of operations.

In these uncertain times where the H1N1 virus has the potential to cripple your business, this solution offers a simple and effective way to maintain continuity of operations by allowing employees to work remotely.

“The wide-spread outbreak of the H1N1 virus poses a real risk to continuing operations for many corporations, government agencies and academic institutions — it’s not just a warning this time,” said Dave Rolston, CEO of Forterra Systems. “The solution we’re offering is a tool that allows your employees to work remotely, stay connected and remain productive. It does not require new equipment or infrastructure. You can start easily and grow, as needed. If you don’t have an effective plan for continuity of operations with the current pandemic you need one — and it should include this solution.”

Seriously?

What happened to the conference call?

People really seem to be getting off on complaining about Wal-Mart’s sick leave policy, but at least Wal-Mart workers don’t have to do their jobs from home when they get sick. Call me socialist, but if I get the swine flu, I doubt I’ll be “logging on” to give my PowerPoint presentation on quarterly earnings from home. If I did, I would make sure to hack, sneeze, and snort my way to an awkward ending of said presentation.

This company also seems to be big on selling their “humanistic” avatar system as a huge benefit. I mean, have they ever heard of The Sims, or Yoville? This isn’t exactly an innovation.

Yoville Avatars

The reason I am so worked up about this is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there right now trying to develop new and innovative ways to bring the Kermitocracy to its knees. Meanwhile, this company is cooking up regurgitations of classic sim games in order to keep sick people working.

Forterra User

It’s a waste of resources, and only inhibits our ability as humans to continue the campaign against the Porcine-Anuran Movement.

If this company really wanted to develop something that would matter in these trying times, they would have cooked up a combat sim that would give the user terrifyingly realistic representations of American cities being overrun by Kermit and his cohorts.

If anyone knows of any such game, please notify this blog immediately. I obviously would want to spread the word and give the developer of such a game the proper accolades.

In the meantime, please spread the word about this senseless, offensive, and pointless development.

3502556    สัญญภาพและความต่อเนื่อง    Visual Semiotics And Continuity

หลักการ ความหมาย และความต่อเนื่องของสัญญภาพในงานเรขศิลป์ ประยุกต์ใช้เพื่อการสื่อสารทางทัศนะโดยใช้คอมพิวเตอร์ ภาพฉายและวีดีทัศน์ เน้นการปฏิบัติงานโครงการ

(Principles, meaning and continuity of visual semiotics in creative Graphics; application for visual communication by using computer, slide, and video, emphasizing practice of creative project training.)

(3502556 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

“For good skeletons are we
And we’re dying to be free –
‘All flesh be gone’
Save your dry and joyous shout
For the day poor skeleton steps out”

– XTC

Today is All Hallows Eve. We carved our jack-o-lanterns this afternoon, and around 4 o’clock, after Mara’s buddy Gwyneth arrived, we all headed over to the house of some other friends for pizza and an ice-cream cake. Dinner and dessert dispatched, we all hit the sidewalks in search of treats. Our party included six princesses, some of them fairy princesses, a tiger and a fireman.

Mara puts the finishing touches on her jack-o-lantern.

Someday Mara will learn of the untold heaps of candy that covered the dining room table, the pillowcases and shopping bags that we used to bring home full and dragging behind us on the ground at the end of a Halloween haul. It was like purse-seining for candy. She’ll learn that there was a time before the “Fun Size” marketing ploy that attempted to convince kids that less candy was more “fun”, a time when size spoke for itself and the size was a half-foot of Baby Ruth, Snickers, Three Muskateers, Mounds and Almond Joy, and Milky Way, and a full eight inches of Butterfinger. The boxes of Milk Duds and Junior Mints rattled with a plenum and gave our bags a satisfying noisiness. One packet of candy-corn would make you sick. Rare was the household within a half mile radius of our house that did not participate. Even if there was no pumpkin lit, there would be someone with a bowl of candy inside at almost every house. The only houses we skipped were those where the porchlight was dark, the signal for “no candy here”. We skipped the Godfrey’s at the bottom of our hill, too, because they gave apples every year and given the area we had to cover before curfew it just didn’t make sense to waste any time going up a driveway where you knew the payoff would be suboptimal.

Things are not like that today. Aside from one, the bars were mostly Fun Size. A few were even those miniature Hershey bars so small that you’d never find it again if you dropped it on an Oriental rug. We had to walk past many dark porches tonight in Wallingford. Those who are available generally make it very obvious. Latona Avenue has a few houses with ghosts sprouting from the chimneys and spooky lights and decorations all over the front walkway. One man on 6th, down next to the freeway, puts up a warehouse full of brightly lit and sound-accompanied stuff for every holiday. But these are few and far between. We walked our kids around for an hour. We visited Tina, an old German lady who is kind to stray cats and whom we have known since we moved into this neighborhood ten years ago.

A pretty pink party setting out for confectionary wealth. They have no idea.

Mara considered it quite a satisfactory night to have her little round plastic pumpkin a third full. Dumped on the dining room table, the take barely disturbed the pattern of the table cloth, and yet we were glad it wasn’t more. Mara accepts the fact that she will get to pig out tomorrow — one day of suspended dental health policy — and then we’ll get rid of the rest. She cherishes the getting, but she is not too upset about the not having. She understands that this stuff is poison. It makes me gag to think of the spoils I brought home, and which, if I recall correctly, I smacked away at for days and weeks, to the consternation of my good parents (but what could they do? You could regulate daily intake in those days to spread out the damage, I think, but social custom had not yet begun to allow wholesale pitching of the booty).

Someday she will learn about the good ol’ days. I hope she’ll make a face and say, “yelcchhh. I feel so sorry for you guys”, but I rather suppose she’ll say something quite else.

Lily and Mica, at top of stairs, lead the way as Mara and Gwyneth race to catch up. The man came to the door in a mask that sent Mara and Gwyneth practically tumbling back down the stairs to get away.

I didn’t know much about Michael Oakeshott before reading this short piece by Timothy Fuller. The subject is conservatism with a small ‘c’, and its influence on politics, lawmaking, social theory, etc. 

He thought that to be of a conservative disposition was to enjoy the possibilities of the present moment without excessive anxiety for what we had been or what we imagined we were going to be. He thought that maturity meant to live in the present, neither in a state of guilt nor of heroic aspiration. Heroic aspiration he thought was proper to the individual striking out on his own to seek his fortune, but was not an attitude for governments to impose on the polity as a whole. 

We should, he said, “attend to” the arrangements that had brought us together by chance or choice. Living in the present did not mean to him living self-indulgently, but rather living to the highest possible degree without the distraction of an endlessly regretted past or a wished-for but illusory future liberation from all our problems. He understood that many of our “problems” were recurrent predicaments that we had to manage but from which there would be no permanent liberation.

It can sound complacent. But in this way of thinking, the conservative disposition is to affirm the values and traditions that have guided a concrete society, instead of trying to re-build a society on the foundation of abstract ideals. It doesn’t mean that everything from the past is necessarily good and beyond questioning. Nor does it mean that new ideals are incapable of provoking radical transformations. It just means that the instinct, the default position, is to trust first in that framework of habits and institutions and values that have made a particular way of life possible – however imperfect. And then to wonder how these could be built upon. This might sound dull; it’s certainly pragmatic. But it’s not without ideals - it just requires that these ideals are rooted in contemporary realities. You could say that they have to grow ‘organically’ out of the present.

Oakeshott’s conservatism is a fear that revolution, or even an apparently purifying return to the sources, might do more harm than good. It’s a suspicion of ideology, encapsulated in the adage ‘the perfect is the enemy of the good’. This connects with contemporary discussions in theology about the importance of preserving a ‘hermeneutic of continuity’ whenever you are assessing a doctrinal or liturgical development.

I’ve no idea whether I agree with Oakeshott’s philosophy – I need to read some of his own writings! But I do believe, to put it in a slightly different way, that any worthwhile reform needs to be accompanied by some sense of gratitude for who you are and what you have received from the tradition to which you belong.